Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected Specifications

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Editorial Review

Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected is a mouthful of a name to go with a mouthful of a brush. The Platinum Connected is about as high end and high tech as electric toothbrushes get, with motion sensors to analyze your brushing technique using the sharp eye of a dentist somehow shrunk to proportions that allow them to study your teeth from the inside of your mouth as well as the outside. And, as the "Connected" part of the name implies, the unit comes with a smartphone app that can explain what you're doing wrong, help you figure out how to do it right, and nag you about using mouthwash. This is the iPhone of electric toothbrushes, with Siri transmuted into an oral hygienist.

All of this is made by a Dutch corporation so massive that over the years its various technologies have needed to be pulled like teeth and placed into corporate mouths of their own. Philips began in 1895 as a manufacturer of carbon-filament lamps, the cutting-edge tech of an era that planted the seeds of so much of the cutting-edge tech of our own. In the 1920s Philips became involved with short-wave radio, the proto-Internet of its day, and started manufacturing vacuum tubes. They produced low-cost electrical generators at a time when much of the world still ran its lighting on gas (or had no self-powered appliances at all). In the 1930s they turned to bodily hygiene by making early model electric razors, a part of their manufacturing mega-laboratory that was spun off into subsidiary Norelco. After working their way through televisions, audio cassettes and VCRs, Philips purchased Optiva Corporation, which made Sonicare toothbrushes, and gave birth to the Philips Oral Healthcare division -- which brings us back to the mouthful of a toothbrush we are holding in our virtual hand.

Given Philips' history, it's no surprise that the Platinum Connected is so state of the art, both in function and in price. Purchased new, the unit costs more than some smaller HDTVs, so it's only for those who take their oral hygiene very, very seriously. You might consider opting for the basic Sonicare Flexcare instead. Or the much lower end Waterpik Complete Care WP-900.